Holiday cottage owners - things I would like pls!

[EinsteinaGogo]

Hi everyone,

There have been a few posts from holiday cottage owners recently (which makes sense, due to situation).

I'm browsing holiday cottages / lodges in Suffolk for between Christmas and New Year, and I'm pondering my 'must haves'.

Obviously, everyone has their own 'must haves'. In our case, we only go out for a few hours a day. the rest of the time we spend In the cottage.
so my must haves are:

Excellent wifi
Good sized Smart TV with Netflix at a minimum, ideally Amazon and ability to have other apps
King sized bed

There are so few places that have smart TVs -
I'm actually thinking about bringing one! And so many places only have a double bed. My DH is 6'4". Double beds mean rubbish sleep for us.

Renters: what are your must haves?
And owners - can you get me smart tv and massive bed pls?!

Bath, nice standalone shower, washing machine, dishwasher, smart telly or one with HDMI socket I can plug the Chromecast into. Reviews of the best local restaurants and takeaways. Plain cotton bedding. Crab net where applicable (I know that’s a bit niche, but we bring our own buckets and spades but keeping our own crab net is mad). A nice big table for jigsaws (yes that’s just us). Proper sized mugs for adult tea not a dollies’ tea party.

@Herdwick - yes, sorry, I meant that the TV should have Netflix and Amazon Prime apps - we would login to our own accounts 😎😎

@ineedaholidaynow - why would you go on holiday just to watch TV?

As I said - everyone has their own must haves etc. In our case, we have a disabled child who can only go out for a few hours on and off.

Thanks for asking.

Hi op

We stay at Suffolk escapes in Suffolk
Emperor size beds hot tubs fully fitted kitchens
Luxury log cabins on a lake very very private
We've been 5 time's

Yes! To proper size mugs. I hate piddly little ones where I have to make everyone two mugs at a time.

When DS was small I only booked places that could provide a proper cot because he hated being in a travel cot. It limited my choice a lot but was worth it for peaceful evenings. These days a dishwasher is my main essential.

If there is only a king bed we don't book. We have superking at home and I'm not prepared to sleep in a smaller bed on holiday, anywhere.

Definitely king size bed.

I actually hate going away anywhere, because it means I have to share a bed with DH who snores terribly. At home we have separate bedrooms, both with a king size bed. I take ear plugs when we go anywhere, but a tiny double bed means that I get no sleep at all as we are crammed together.

A week's holiday spent with sleep deprivation and weeping with exhaustion is no 'break' at all.

Agree with most of the things on here. I'd also say - imagine if you were actually living here and imagine what would be annoying.

Last year we stayed in a holiday cottage where you entered into a small hall with the stairs directly in front of you and door into the downstairs on the left. The fridge (i.e. something that people tend to use a lot) was directly behind the door so everytime someone came down from upstairs they had to bang on the door to check no one was behind it. There was a very obvious alternative place in the kitchen where the fridge could have been placed.

Also please check that towels are unstained and not threadbare. Just putting them through a wash doesn't guarantee either of these things.

If your holiday cottage sleeps (say) 6 then the dining room table needs to accommodate 6 people sitting down at once. Your guests don't want to have to eat in shifts.

Try sitting in the lounge furniture. Is it actually comfortable? This is more important than how pretty your throws and cushions are. Also - check that the television is somewhere that more than 1 person can see it.

Finally - check the previous guests have not left anything in the oven or freezer. My personal favourite - a half eaten lasagne in the freezer, still in the dish it had been cooked in, that was clearly so old that mould was growing despite it being frozen.

@Guiltypleasures001 - ooh, tks - just looked at that - it looks absolutely wonderful.

Not available for our dates, but definitely one I'll put on the list - thank you very much xxx

The reason why you’d want TV options is that on a family holiday it’s nice to have a movie evening, and there might be a live TV show or sports event on that week which you really want to watch.

I remember one summer holiday fell in the middle of a Game of Thrones season. The weather was lovely and there was lots to do. 99 percent of the time was spent on the beach, sightseeing, walking, making sandcastles (Dragonstone to be precise), all the usual stuff, and a great holiday, but if I hadn’t had access to Sky for that one hour out of the week I’d have been gutted (as it happens I brought my laptop with me just in case, but the cottage having Sky on a big telly was a huge bonus).

If it's on a complex I always like the idea of having a chest freezer with 'cook' oven meals and an honesty box in a communal area. Would mean you wouldn't have to worry about going to the supermarket on the way etc.

When I was a child we stayed on a farm in Cornwall and the homeowner made these yummy meals which you could preorder frozen.

Decent knife set- with sharpener if possible.

@whoknowswhichwayisup - now that sounds AMAZING!

Lightly fragranced or neutral fragrance laundry detergent. The last cottage I stayed in used very heavily scented detergent and so much fabric conditioner that the sheets and towels felt almost greasy. I don't have any allergies but I don't use stuff like that at home and found it really overpowering.

@BlessYourCottonSocks

Definitely king size bed.

I actually hate going away anywhere, because it means I have to share a bed with DH who snores terribly. At home we have separate bedrooms, both with a king size bed. I take ear plugs when we go anywhere, but a tiny double bed means that I get no sleep at all as we are crammed together.

A week's holiday spent with sleep deprivation and weeping with exhaustion is no 'break' at all.

Can’t you book a cottage with enough bedrooms for one each?

For me it would be: bed side lamps, I've been places with just a main light, and one particular cottage that had overhead spot light type lamps that were glaring and we had to hang towels over! Also white bedding and towels. More than one place setting per person so you don't have put the dishwasher on after every meal. Agree with leather sofas, but so many places do have them, we take throws to cover them.

Absolute minimum I'd expect would be:

King-size bed
Good WiFi
Very clean
At least a couple of toilet rolls
Somewhere convenient, free and accessible to park the car
More than one tea towel, one dishcloth etc to last the week

Wifi is tricky as some places just have pretty weak services.
I would like: downstairs toilet
Good shower
Cable TV (and/or Amazon Prime)
Matching dinnerware
Decent weight cutlery (not cheap diner stuff)
Cotton sheets
King size bed
To be left alone!!

We don't check bed sizes, normal double will be fine for us.

If you say no pets (which we always choose due to allergies) that should apply to not letting your own pets in too. Last summer's cottage smelt of cat - owner cheerfully admitted their cat had been in the cottage that day, "helping" with the changeover.

@AbacabMR

Hmm. To be honest the only time we've booked cottages has been with friends and it never occurred to me to say we'll need an extra bedroom because DH and I want one each.

I can't see that happened really. I'd be seen as a CF and it would presumably push the price up. I was really thinking how much I loathe going to stay with friends and relations for any more than a night. Unfortunately MIL lives roughly 10 hours drive away from us and so we usually go for a week. I hate it because she has a tiny guest room with a tiny bed. I've suggested we stay in a B&B but she was upset.

Comfy mattress, ideally memory foam
Spotlessly clean (I don’t understand how so many holiday rental owners don’t appear to be able to see cobwebs??)
Selection of wine glasses
Very good WiFi
Smart TV
White, properly pressed bed linen

If you have a folder full of leaflets for restaurants and takeaways etc, check through it every few months to make sure it's up to date. I've seen several that clearly hadn't been checked for years. Ditto with bus and train timetables.

Wash all bedding and towels in Surcare or at least something that's scent-free and hypoallergenic.

I’m always interested to read these threads as a holiday let owner. In fact before we started up our let, there was a similar thread and I went through it and made a list to make sure as much as possible was covered. I’m actually quite shocked when I read that guests have been to places that have blunt knives, threadbare towels, not enough crockery etc. etc. I really care about our guests’ comfort and made the effort to supply things that I personally would expect e.g. king size bed, separate shower and bath, smart TV, plenty of glasses (juice, tumbler, wine, champagne), sharp knives, blackout curtains, adjustable bedside lights for reading in bed, plenty of hooks, hangers, mirrors, good storage, plenty of dishwasher tablets, twice as much crockery as people, and loads more I could mention. So far we have been going nearly two years and have had some lovely reviews, particularly how well equipped our cottage is and how comfortable the beds are. At the moment, we’ve only got two bookings for this year but hope things will pick up as the summer goes on and we might get some last minute bookings.